Being Cho
by MoonCharm114
Summary: This is a story about Cho, but not like the most ones - about the way she deals with Cedric's death - but about Cho's life and the beginning of her and Cedric. If all goes well, it ends at the Yule Ball.


**C****hapter 1**

Cho was wandering around the entrance hall, waiting for her friend Marietta and watching the rain pouring down outside the castle. The rain made her think of yesterday's Quidditch match, Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff.

She remembered how she had been watching the Hufflepuff seeker and captain, Cedric Diggory, speeding upwards and catching the Snitch, and Harry Potter, the Gryffindor seeker, falling off his broom from at least fifty feet. He had sure been lucky to survive such a fall, although he probably didn't feel very lucky, considering that Gryffindor had lost the match.

But Cedric, he'd won, and Cho couldn't help feeling very happy for him, although it meant that she had to beat him the next match. Strong and silent, that's what all those giggling girls used to call him. She just thought he was very nice, and it couldn't hurt that he was quite good-looking too. If only he'd –

"Cho? Are you coming?" Marietta had just arrived in the entrance hall, and together they set off for the Quidditch pitch.

Cho had just received the new broom she had ordered with Quality Quidditch Supplies, and she had promised Marietta that she'd be the first to ride it, after herself.

The Cleansweep Seven was a nice broom, not the best there was but, basically, all she could afford right now. Her parents weren't very wealthy and she was lucky even to be able to buy a broom, and not having to ride one of the school brooms. Being a seeker herself, that would be the end of her spot in the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

But Cho wondered if this broom would make any difference: Potter had a Firebolt, and against the fastest broom in the world the poor Cleansweep didn't stand a chance.

They reached the Quidditch pitch and to their astonishment, they found the pitch to be already occupied, by none other than the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Stunned, Cho walked onto the pitch and addressed the captain. 'Hey Diggory, what are you doing here? The pitch is supposed to be free on Sundays and it's only yesterday that you won a match!'

'I know, but we were very lucky. I'd rather not depend on bad weather conditions and a distracted seeker next time, so I thought it would be best to start training for the next match straight away. I'd invite you to watch, but I'm afraid we can't have spies steeling our tactics." Cedric replied with a grin, and Cho couldn't help grinning back, even though she was disappointed that the pitch was already taken.

Not only was Cedric nice and handsome, he was also very modest, because everybody had been able to see that Cedric had spotted the snitch long before Potter had got distracted by the dementors. The bad weather only meant that it was extra difficult to see the snitch.

Cho looked at the side of the pitch, where half a dozen third year girls were standing, holding jackets over their heads to protect them from the rain.

They had apparently been watching the training, but were now glaring at Cho enviously. It was obvious that they hadn't been watching because they were so interested in Quidditch.

Cho knew that a lot of girls were interested in the Hufflepuff captain, which was also the reason she knew that she didn't stand a chance. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to.

'Oh well,' her older sister Lin would say, 'plenty of fish in the sea!' Easy for her to say, seeing that she had been happily married for almost two years.

But she was probably right, and Cho had other things to worry about anyway, like her next Quidditch match. Even though she knew that she was a pretty good seeker, there were many Ravenclaws who were ready to take over her position should she be kicked out of the team.

And the next Quidditch match was against Hufflepuff, who had just beaten the team that was considered to be the best of the school. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to spy on them after all, to see their tactics. That way Ravenclaw could prepare for what was coming and she would know how to beat Cedric to the Snitch.

But first things first, and Cho's first priority right now was to fly on her new broomstick and become familiar with it. It wouldn't do to fall off her broom in the next training. That would only make Roger Davies, the Ravenclaw captain, question her abilities.

She decided that she would go and practice on the lawn with Marietta and returned her attention to the boy in front of her, who was looking at her curiously.

'You work on your tactics, Diggory, you'll need more than bad weather conditions to beat us. But you should watch out, a spy can appear in any form!'

Cho winked at him before she walked off the pitch, completely forgetting about Marietta, who had been standing beside her shyly, not knowing what to say. She quickly hurried after Cho, afraid to be alone with the popular Quidditch players and a bit jealous of the way Cho seemed to be able to talk to anyone. Why can't I be like that, she thought. She turned to look at the handsome captain one last time, but noticed that he was looking at Cho, who seemed to be deep in thought.

They walked away from the pitch, past Hagrid's hut and the Womping Willow towards a quiet place near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Cho put the brand new broomstick on the ground, held her hand above it and said 'up!' like Madam Hooch had told the Ravenclaws in their first ever flying lesson.

It immediately sprang to her hand, which she considered to be a good sign. Cho climbed on her broom and pushed against the ground, and at once she rose about twenty feet.

She had missed flying ever since her last broom had disappeared mysteriously, missed the feeling of the wind through her hair and the sun on her face – although that wasn't the case today – the feeling that told her that she was free, free to go wherever she wanted to go, and at the same time free of all her troubles and daily affairs.

Of course she had an idea about who might have stolen her broomstick. The Slytherin Quidditch team knew as well as Cho did that she was a good seeker, and it couldn't hurt for them to get her kicked out of the team only to be replaced by someone less good. Luckily she had been able to buy a new broomstick just in time, or their plan would have succeeded.

But she was still going to find out who had done it, and she already had a plan on how to do it. But first she had to get to know this new broom.

After a couple of minutes in the air, she returned to the ground and handed the broom to Marietta, who had been watching her admiringly. Marietta had never owned a broom, even though she came from a wizarding family.

Cho was watching Marietta absentmindedly when she suddenly heard an angry voice behind her.

"Miss Edgecombe! Miss Chang! What do you think you're doing?" It was the voice of professor McGonagall, who was walking towards Cho and Marietta.

"We were just trying my new broom, professor," Cho said quickly, because the look on McGonagall's face was a frightening one.

"you know perfectly well that you are not allowed out without a teacher or other member of the staff, what with Sirius Black in the vicinity. I had expected you to know better, Miss Chang. Now get inside quickly, and don't let me catch you outside alone again or it will be detention. Am I understood?"

"Yes, professor," muttered Cho and Marietta, who had quickly landed once she had heard professor McGonagall's angry voice.

Together they hurried back to the castle through the rain, and they were soaking wet when they finally got to the immense wooden doors. Cho shivered, and they ran up the stairs towards Ravenclaw Tower, before Filch would see that they had smeared the entrance hall with muddy footsteps and give them detention for a month.

They walked past the moving portraits and Cho almost forgot to skip the disappearing step; Marietta warned her just in time, after seeing that she was so caught up in her thoughts that if she didn't act soon, Cho would be stuck with her leg in the stairs.

When they got to the entrance to the common room, a boy was waiting outside the door. It was Eddie Carmichael, the smartest boy in their year.

'Hey Eddie, what are you doing? Don't tell me you couldn't solve the riddle!' Cho said.

'I'm afraid I'll have to, I have no idea what it means! I've tried and tried but she won't let me in!' He said, pointing at the head of the bronze eagle on the door.

'Alright, let's see if we can get it right'. Cho grabbed the handle and knocked, and at once the eagle started speaking in a melodious voice: 'I cover what's real, hide what is true, but sometimes bring out the courage in you. What am I?'

'I've tried heart, and then brains, but I couldn't think of anything else!' Said Eddie, looking slightly ashamed that even in fourth year, he could still get trapped outside the common room for not knowing the answer to the riddle.

'Ooh, you were thinking in the completely wrong direction! The answer is make-up!' Marietta said, surprising both Eddie and Cho.

'Good thinking,' the eagle said, and the door swung open to reveal the Ravenclaw common room, beautiful with the star covered ceiling and the marvellous statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. Cho loved the place, it had really become a home for her in the past years.

'Well, you couldn't have expected me to know that, I never use make-up,' Eddie said grumpily, but Cho and Marietta had already disappeared through the door that led to the dormitories above.

When they reached the top of the stairs, there was a door that said 'Fourth years'. Inside the dormitory they found their other dorm members, Lucy and Cleo. Lucy was reading Hogwarts, a History and Cleo was flapping through a magazine called Witch Musician and listening to music that was coming out of a tiny magical radio.

'Ooh, would you just look at this guy!' Cleo sighed, and Cho came over to see who it was she had been drooling over. 'Wow, long black hair, pale skin, yellow teeth… He looks just like Sirius Black!'

'He does not! That was not what I meant! I think he's cute…' Cleo retorted, already ripping out the poster from the magazine to hang it on the wall beside her four-poster. She was a pretty girl, with her long black hair and dark brown eyes. She wasn't the only one in their dorm, since it seemed that, to be sorted into Ravenclaw, you didn't have to be just smart and witty but also beautiful.

But still, many boys liked her because of her beauty and her flirtatious manner, and Cho wondered why she didn't pay any attention to them when she was obviously interested in boys.

'I like men who are more mature,' she had answered when Cho had asked her once, but looking at the poster of the musician that was now hanging on her bedside wall, she thought that this could hardly be the case.

Lucy, looking like one of those little angels that you usually find on top of a Christmas tree, with her wavy blonde hair and bright green eyes, sighed because of the behaviour of her friend. Honestly, did she have to be like those muggle girls like her sisters, giggling about famous men and talking endlessly about clothes?

Lucy thought she had had a lucky escape from the shallowness when she first heard that she was a witch and that she was going to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But the past three years had taught her that, like muggle girls, witches could be very superficial.

She looked at Cho, who had been staring at the opposite wall for the past five minutes, and wondered what was going on with her lately. She was quiet, when normally she was outgoing, and she seemed to be more to herself than usual.

'Cho? Are you OK?' She asked, causing Cho to look up in alarm.

'Oh, I'm fine, I was just thinking about Quidditch and who could have stolen my broom,' she said, but she was secretly happy that Lucy couldn't read her mind.


End file.
